05-13-1991 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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S". V. ; ’k' r ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD APRIL 22, 1991 MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT CONTINUED does not suggest to m;-> that common sense was being appi.ied by those who were using it, whether or not the question that they were addressing was correct, which leads me to believe tnat. I have the feeling, from having listened to an abbreviat-?d report of the discussions between the Planning Commission and members of the Council at the last Planning Commission meeting, that feeling has not gone away. It also seems to me, and I may be wrong, that there is a split personality within the Planning Commission. If it is not precisely true that you get a different result, depending on when you appear before the Planning Commission, it is true that you at least would get treated in quite a drastically different way, and you might benefit simply from having your matter tabled in hopes that another group of Planning Commission members were present at that next meeting. I am also aware, at least it has been suggested by some members of the Council, and certainly the suggestio.ns in the various documents we get are such, that wn are considering a change in the function of the Planning Commission. The City of Plymouth is having a deal of difficulty in their attempts to change terns after an election. mth a staggered board on the Planning Cororoirsion, in order to effectively change the make-up, or tenor, of the Planning Commission, if Council so wishes, would prove extremely difficult and would take three years. If we change the Ordinance to provide a onc-year term, during which time the Council addresses tinese matters. Council could make changes in the Planning Commission, effectively. If my view of the Planning Commission in correct, and it isn’t to say that I object to individual decisions that they make about zoning, I am at a complete loss to understand why wo would want to have an advisory body whose view of us was that it would be better if we went away and d;.ed q.iietly. And that it we were unfortunate enough not to follow the recommendation, which they absolutely feel are necessary, that we should perhaps be shot at sunrise. Even thoug.n I do not believe that it is necessary for the Planning Commission t.n be 'yes people', I still don't believe that we should have a group that does not have anything in common the way that we run the City. I think if we make tnis change, we would be able to consider those problems and deal with them. Otherwise, if wo elect people for three-year terms tonight, we will be very awkwardly placed, at least politically and practically, to do anything about it. I would like to say, and this contradicts some of my earlier negative comments about the Planning Commission, that I think the Planning Commission does extremely good work. They work as hard 18 they can and their zoning decisions are well thought out and conceived, with the exception of this split personality. It would be hard to do c- -er than praise them for the work they did - 15 -